For the last 18 months, we've used this blog to help highlight some of the best iReports we've received from CNN.com readers. We want to thank you for being a part of it, and tell you about the next exciting phase of iReports.

Have you ever had the urge to chuck everything and just go on the road to explore the country? Well, Angel Hess had that urge too, and he actually did it. Hess sent us an I-Report photo of his truck earlier this week and his story is truly one-of-a-kind.

Two years ago, he bought a purple 1953 bread truck, and set out on the road. He has been traveling from coast to coast, starting at the northernmost point of California. He uses his blog and Craigslist to find places to park for a few weeks, and other donations for his trip. Hess says, "I always say that I wanted to own a house and this is the way I'm doing it now."

Once a design school student, Hess takes pictures all along his journey, and posts them on his Web site. One picture with a prime spot shows him with his truck, as the New York City marathon goes by.

His Web site shows a map all of the places he has stopped over the first three months of his trip. After spending a while in Brooklyn, he has since headed south, stopping in North Carolina.

Hess is currently in South Carolina, on the way to Georgia. Eventually he thinks he will probably head back west, where the solar panels he uses for energy will be stronger.

We've been doing I-Report for over a year now, and every so often, there's one that takes all of us by surprise. When Chidi Ogbuta got married on September 22nd, she probably didn't expect this either.

As I write this, the I-Report by Ogbuta showing a wedding cake made to look like her is in 5th place for "most commented stories" on CNN.com. We also saw reaction to it all around the web, including blogs by Dave Barry and VH-1.

The bride had always wanted a doll made in her own likeness like Hollywood stars. Instead, she asked to have a personalized wedding, including a cake in her own likeness. The photo was snapped by her professional wedding photographer, Uche Ogbonna.

When the wedding guests first arrived, some thought it was a statue of the bride. Many of them took pictures of it with their cameras and cell phones.

Ogbuta said that the cake fulfilled her childhood dream, and her husband was very happy to help her with it.

And for those of you wondering, they took home the portions of the cake that were left and it lasted a full week.

Got a story to tell? Share it with us! Comment below if you feel compelled to add to this discussion.

Amidst the crisis in Pakistan, we received a photo showing a student protest Monday, November 5, at the Lahore University of Management Sciences in Lahore, Pakistan. The I-Reporter who sent it said the protest was in response to the treatment of two professors who traveled to Islamabad to demonstrate against the imposition of martial law. The I-Reporter said about 400 to 500 people attended the protest in Lahore.

I-Reports give us a view of the world and give a voice to the people who give us a glimpse at what is going on around them.

Jeremy Burnside of East Lake, Ohio, left work Wednesday, October 10, and walked several blocks to SuccessTech Academy, the downtown Cleveland, Ohio, school that had been the scene of a shooting hours earlier.

"I just wanted to see," said Burnside, who took a photo of the scene and sent it to CNN with his cell phone. Before this event, he was writing opinion pieces to voice his concerns about gun violence, and said this shooting only strengthens his arguments.

Burnside was on campus during a January 2002 shooting at Appalachian School of Law in Grundy, Virginia. Three people were killed, including the dean, a professor and a student. Three others were wounded.

Looking back, he said he had always hoped if he ever found himself in the position to stop a gunman, he would try to do so. But when he was in the middle of a real-life incident, he waited in the library.

He participates in annual five-kilometer runs in honor of the victims of the Appalachian School of Law shooting. Earlier this year, he returned to Cleveland after the run and heard about the Virginia Tech shootings in Blacksburg, Virginia, soon after. Virginia Tech and Appalachian School of Law are about two hours apart.

In May 2003, he was in proximity to another shooting, this time at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. He had just returned to law school in Grundy after a family visit in Cleveland when he learned of the shooting.

Burnside struggles to understand the coincidences he has seen in his life. He sent in a photo that held more meaning to him than what is apparent at first glance: a few ambulances outside a school following a horrible event. As a person deeply affected by gun violence, he communicated with us as a way of contributing to the ongoing dialogue he has established. He's also building up the historical documentation and interpretation of this event on a greater scale. In that way, a simple picture is worth way more than 1,000 words.

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